There are two ways to take the near-constant news about maintenance backlogs on public lands: let yourself get discouraged鈥攐r step up and start giving back. Amid national park service layoffs, funding freezes, policy changes, and a general tightening down of the economy, many trail organizations have been left scrambling for funding. That means they need your help now more than ever. Here are three empowering ways to give back, score matching funds, and get involved in protecting your favorite trails.

Donate to Trail Karma to Snag a Funds Match

For about a decade, the program has enabled trail users to donate to local organizations to protect trails near them. And this year, Toyota has partnered with 国产吃瓜黑料 to help readers鈥� dollars go even further. The company is currently donating a total of $20,000 to 20 different small trail advocacy organizations across the U.S., including in the Ozarks, the Cascades, the Southern Appalachians, Pike鈥檚 Peak National Forest, and Maine鈥檚 North Woods. On top of that, it鈥檚 making $80,000 available in matching funds. There鈥檚 no cap on the amount each trail organization can earn within that $80,000鈥攚hich means that if you can round up enough friends to donate $80K fast, your favorite trail could have $160K of improvements coming its way by the end of the year.

Create a Trailwork Event Through The American Hiking Society

Since its founding in 1976, the American Hiking Society has worked hard to build, maintain, and protect some of the nation鈥檚 most classic trails. It鈥檚 perhaps most famous for its , which galvanize hikers across the country to build and restore classic routes. Join a local event, or create your own for a trail in need. Looking for other empowering ways to chip in? Consider donating. 国产吃瓜黑料 has even partnered with AHS to sweeten the deal: or more over the course of a year, and you鈥檒l get a free subscription.

Sign Up for an IMBA Volunteer Day

Mountain bike trails take some serious abuse, and they require constant maintenance to keep the ride fun, flowy, and safe. That鈥檚 where the IMBA comes in handy. The International Mountain Bicycling Association partners with dozens of smaller trail advocacy organizations across the state. Use the to find your local group, then reach out to sign up for upcoming volunteer days. Swing a shovel, learn about sustainable trail design, and leave knowing you were part of the solution.

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In April, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a hunting education and advocacy organization, circulated a press release offering a $500 reward 鈥渇or reports or information leading to a conviction of those responsible for illegal trail construction on public lands.鈥� In other words, the national nonprofit placed what amounted to a bounty on mountain bikers building illegal trails.

The Colorado chapter of BHA sent the press release directly to two publications: Boulder鈥檚 Daily Camera newspaper and the Mountain Ear, which services Nederland, a town 18 miles up Boulder Canyon. The bounty technically applies to the entire state of Colorado, but the memo indicated that it was targeted at trailbuilders in the national forests around Boulder and Nederland.

Both towns are hubs for outdoor recreation. The Roosevelt and Arapaho national forests, which comprise 160,000 acres of public land, offer ample hiking, skiing, hunting, and fishing. They are the country鈥檚 third-most visited forests, with an estimated 7.5 million annual users. Nederland in particular is popular with mountain bikers: the parking lot for the West Magnolia trail system, a prominent聽network of singletrack, overflows with cars every weekend from late spring to mid-fall, and the nearby Front Range trails see ample bike traffic as well.

But in the vicinity, like just about anywhere with a mountain bike scene, locals have built secret, illegal trails. These see far less traffic than the sanctioned trails. I spoke to a local resident who builds illegal trails, who wished to remain anonymous for this story. He told me he enjoys the creativity, solo time in nature, and challenge that comes from cutting the clandestine paths.

There鈥檚 a long history of social trail-building in the Nederland area, says Josh Harrod, president of the all-volunteer mountain-bike-focused Nederland Area Trails Organization (NATO). 鈥淚 would say 90 percent-plus of the trails we use up here started as social trails鈥攖he elk and deer ran through, then hikers followed, then bikers followed suit,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ocial trail construction is kind of the fabric of the local trail community. NATO doesn鈥檛 sanction it, but I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 ever going to stop.鈥�

It was these trails that interested BHA. The read, 鈥淔or years we鈥檝e been hearing from public lands agency staff and our members that illegal trail building is rampant in many areas of the state and proliferating. Elk herds and other wildlife are suffering as a result. [The $500 reward for turning illegal trailbuilders in] is one small step we can take to try and help moderate and hopefully deter additional illegal trail construction activity.鈥�

Local mountain bikers were angry. 鈥淭hose guys are out there walking around with guns. When they put a bounty out, it鈥檚 a bad look,鈥� says the trail-builder I spoke with.

Bikers felt the reaction was overblown. The trail-builder I spoke with describes his renegade trails as harmless labors of love that only he and a few friends know about鈥攃ould they really be getting in the way of wildlife? And why was one backcountry user group launching what felt like an offensive towards another?

The trails in the Nederland area are, like most trails across the mountain West, more crowded than ever. In their press release, BHA cited a quote from Gary Moore, executive director of the Colorado Mountain Bike Association, saying that bikers’ options are limited in the state. And popular renegade trails do occasionally get retroactively sanctioned by the Forest Service, according to multiple mountain bike groups.

Sanctioning new trail construction is a complicated process that can take decades, says Meara McQuain, executive director of the Headwaters Trails Alliance in Grand County, Colorado. If the HTA wants to build a new trail on federal land, it takes its idea to the relevant governing land agency. If the agency is interested, they鈥檒l do a public survey to determine engagement. Then, the trail goes through a process mandated by the National Environmental Policies Act to evaluate its potential impact, with scientists and researchers鈥攊ncluding archaeologists, hydrologists, botanists, and wildlife biologists鈥攚eighing in. The study findings are released for public comment, and if anyone protests, the project goes into a public objection period. The federal agency makes modifications, if necessary, and the leadership of the land management agency makes the final decision. All of this can take anywhere from three to 15 years, says McQuain. (The process looks different for state and private land.)

Research shows that trails can impact wildlife in dramatic ways. In the 1980s, a Colorado State University biologist named Bill Alldredge started near Vail, as ski resorts and trail systems started expanding. He and his team radio-collared female elk with new calves and then had humans hike through their preferred grounds until the cows showed signs of disturbance like standing up or walking away. Of the elk he studied, about 30 percent of their calves died when their mothers were disturbed by humans鈥攁nd when the disturbances stopped, the population recovered.

A 2016 of wildlife studies spanning four decades found that human traffic on trails forces animals to flee, limiting their feeding time and forcing them to expend valuable energy. And a out of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, from earlier this year found that mountain biking ranked second only to ATV use in disturbing elk populations in a 120,000-acre parcel of land east of town.

Whether all illegally built trails negatively impact wildlife, we don鈥檛 know. But Kriss Hess, the BHA member who sent the press release to Boulder and Nederland papers, argues that while many of these trails might only see a little traffic in their early years, it鈥檚 not uncommon for them to eventually wind up on mapping apps and grow in popularity, impacting wildlife years down the line.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not trying to be aggressive with this, but we are extremely concerned about the we鈥檙e seeing across the state in elk and mule deer and other populations,鈥� says Brien Webster, BHA鈥檚 program manager and Colorado and Wyoming coordinator. 鈥淥ur wildlife and land management agencies are maxed when it comes to capacity, so it鈥檚 extremely difficult for them to post up and stop riders from accessing an illegal trail,鈥� says Webster. They鈥檙e hoping the bounty might help the agencies manage the issue.

BHA also hopes to create and distribute maps and other educational materials that might help different user groups better understand how elk see and use a landscape. In August, they released a 15-page 鈥溾�� with maps showing critical wildlife habitat and national conservation areas with social trails built through them. BHA is also considering placing educational signage at existing trailheads in areas with high rider concentration where illegal trailbuilding has occurred.

But the Boulder Ranger District has no formal or informal agreement with BHA, and it would be illegal for BHA to do any kind of trail maintenance, add signage, or install cameras, according to Reid Armstrong, public affairs specialist for the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. Armstrong also pointed out that several recent bills have increased the Boulder Ranger District鈥檚 funding and that they are focusing their efforts where they feel they are most urgently needed, specifically on infrastructure projects and wildfire recovery and mitigation.

And Wendy Sweet, executive director of the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, said that publishing maps of illegal trails may have the opposite of the desired effect. 鈥淚f the mountain bike community sees this memo, the first thing they will do is want to check [those trails] out,鈥� she says. Sweet had multiple meetings with BHA members prior to the publishing of this memo to talk about how all of the various stakeholders in Boulder County could work together to create trails safe for wildlife, and felt the release was in bad faith. Plenty of other factors place strain on wildlife, like development in the wilderness-urban interface, increasing backcountry use across all user groups, wildfire, and a changing climate.

Since releasing the bounty, Webster says, nobody has been turned in. Instead, 鈥淏HA has had some really good conversations with folks within the mountain bike community who are trying to address this in a meaningful way,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t has helped us think about our objective, and to focus more on education than the bounty aspect.鈥�

Aaron Kindle, director of sporting advocacy at the National Wildlife Federation, thinks BHA isn鈥檛 being heavy-handed enough. 鈥淲hat happens when someone says, 鈥楳y actions don鈥檛 count in that spot; I鈥檒l do what I want.鈥� What if other folks started seeing those guys never getting punished?鈥� he says. 鈥淭he beauty of having public lands is that we鈥檙e all responsible for taking care of these landscapes.鈥�

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The 鈥攚hich covers more than 17,000 miles, connects 15,000 communities, and reaches the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans鈥攊s, unsurprisingly, the longest trail network in the world. Beloved by many Canadians, it is especially important to Vancouver-based , a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo and , which organizes outdoor adventures for underrepresented communities in Vancouver. Kasiama uses the Trans Canada Trail for running and hiking and says, in this film by聽 and the Trans Canada Trail organization, that it鈥檚 bringing people from all walks of life and different backgrounds to the outdoors. Learn more about Trans Canada Trail at聽聽or on , , and .

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Cyclists who love the Dark Crystal Trail, located in Whistler, British Columbia, have Scott Veach to thank for its creation. Veach is a mountain biker who has been building trails for 20 years. With his as his mode of transport, he spends 40 days annually working on and improving Dark Crystal, which winds through old-growth forest and over moss-covered granite rocks. This film by 聽shares Veach鈥檚 story.

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A project in California will connect 15 mountain communities with 300 miles of multi-use trails. Constructed by the , a sustainable trail-building nonprofit, the Lost Sierra Route will accommodate hikers, mountain bikers, moto riders, equestrians, trail runners, hunters, and anglers. The project is a key component of the Stewardship鈥檚 Trails Master Plan for , which aims to bring economic opportunities and community engagement to the regions the trails cover, including California鈥檚 Plumas, Sierra, Butte, and Lassen Counties. A Trail for Everyone shows what it鈥檚 taking to create the Lost Sierra Route, with insight from the organization鈥檚 founder, Greg Williams.

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A Trail for Everyone, produced by showcases the development of a . The plan will create a vision for a recreation-focused lifestyle through community investment, shared stewardship, economic opportunity and important new local jobs, all benefiting economically disadvantaged communities in Plumas, Sierra, Butte and Lassen Counties.

Donate to help build Connected Communities.

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When and her husband moved to Biescas, a small town in the Spanish Pyrenees, there were no mountain-biking trails. They decided to change that. Through mountain biking and trail building, the two have unraveled a legacy as mystical as the valley they call home. The Queen of Biescas is a film, produced by聽 and filmed by

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